MORNING MESSAGE
Roger Wilkins: A Man of Honor for a Tempestuous Time
Roger
Wilkins has left us, just after his 85th birthday. A great champion of social
justice, proud father and good friend, he will be missed ... As the civil rights
movement drove change from the streets, Roger became its advocate and translator
on the inside. There he pushed against the arrogance, ignorance and complacency
of the powerful ... Few have provided greater insight into how racism has
scarred this nation. Few wrestled so fiercely with the contradiction between the
nation’s ideals and its flawed reality.
Trump Wants To Deregulate Infrastructure
Trump’s
infrastructure plan will be heavy with deregulation. Time: “The strategy,
aides say, is to shell out between $100 billion to $200 billion in federal
dollars, while overhauling the regulatory process, cutting regulations and
offering tax credits to private companies … the White House’s priority has been
process reforms, rather than a construction wish list … The plan the White House
is pursuing suggests the prospects for bipartisanship are dimming.”
Yet
Trump starts wooing Dems on infrastructure. The Hill: “Transportation
leaders are expecting Trump to court centrist lawmakers and red state Democrats,
some of whom were in attendance at a White House reception for senators on
Tuesday evening. Infrastructure investment also came up at a recent White House
meeting between Trump and the Congressional Black Caucus.”
Ryan Shuns Dems On Health Care
Speaker
Ryan doesn’t want bipartisan health care reform. The Hill: “Speaker Paul
Ryan (R-Wis.) in an interview to be broadcast early Thursday said he does not
want to work with Democrats on healthcare legislation … ‘I don’t want that to
happen … I want a patient-centered system, I don’t want government running
healthcare.'”
Talks
to resurrect ACA repeal sputter. The Hill: “…there are no discernible signs
of progress in bridging the differences within the Republican conference … Some
centrist GOP lawmakers are pushing back on reviving the House bill [and] want to
begin working with Democrats … Conservatives, however, are showing little
interest …”
Kansas
Gov. expected to veto Medicaid expansion. American Prospect: “… state
senators passed legislation approving an expansion … which would cover 150,000
previously ineligible low-income Kansans. The bill had already passed the House
by an 81-to-44 margin in February … Still, [Gov. Sam] Brownback, one of the most
rigid Obamacare antagonists, is expected to veto [which] is likely to
stand.”
Homeland Security Tries To Assure DREAMers
Homeland
Security chief claims law-abiding DREAMers are safe. Roll Call: “‘By
definition, they’re no longer DACA if they have a violation,’ [DHS Secretary
John] Kelly told reporters after the meeting [with Senate Democrats] … ‘We have
not picked up — I don’t care what you read or people say — we have not in my
time picked up someone who was covered by DACA.’ But roughly 20 Senate Democrats
who attended the meeting appeared divided on Kelly’s assurances.”
More
from Politico: “[Kelly] told senators that border agents would not separate
mothers and children at the border, unless a mother was sick or injured … and
that they didn’t even have the manpower to deport all undocumented immigrants in
the country … Several Democrats weren’t convinced, including Sen. Bob Menendez
of New Jersey … ‘I pointed out to him — that his new memo on priorities makes
everybody technically eligible for deportation … He didn’t deny that.'”
Travel
ban blocked indefinitely. Bloomberg: “In his decision Wednesday in Honolulu,
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, who on March 15 temporarily blocked the
re-worked policy, extended that prohibition on enforcing Trump’s executive order
until a decision on a permanent injunction or a higher court overturns his
ruling.”
Climate Office Can’t Say “Climate Change”
Energy
Department climate office bans phrase “climate change.” Politico: “A
supervisor at the Energy Department’s international climate office told staff
this week not to use the phrases ‘climate change,’ ’emissions reduction’ or
‘Paris Agreement’ in written memos, briefings or other written communication … A
DOE spokeswoman denied there had been a new directive…”
Bill
McKibben keeps up the Keystone fight in LAT oped: “…there’s no approved
route for the pipeline through Nebraska, where organizers and citizens are
hunkering down again for spirited resistance. Dozens of landowners along the
route are refusing to let their land be taken, and the state’s public utility
commission hasn’t granted a permit … the cost of oil has sent investors
scurrying away from the Alberta tar sands [while] the price of a solar panel has
plummeted…”
House
votes to limit EPA’s use of science. The Hill: “The Honest and Open New EPA
Science Treatment Act, or HONEST Act, passed 228-194. It would prohibit the EPA
from writing any regulation that uses science that is not publicly available …
Democrats, environmentalists and health advocates say the HONEST Act is intended
to handcuff the EPA … it often doesn’t own the information and has no right to
release it.”
Breakfast Sides
“North
Carolina Strikes a Deal to Repeal Restrictive Bathroom Law” reports NYT:
“North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature and its Democratic governor
announced late Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to repeal the
controversial state law … But gay rights advocates raised objections … [It]
would also create a moratorium on local nondiscrimination ordinances through
2020 and leave regulation of ‘multi-occupancy facilities,’ or bathrooms, to
state lawmakers.”
Educations
Secretary Betsy DeVos pushes school choice at Brookings event. NYT: “Ms.
DeVos likened the opposition to the school choice movement to that of taxi
companies that opposed ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft … Randi
Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers … took to Twitter …
‘Is she equating kids to cab riders & teachers are drivers?’ …”
Progressive
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